And Last for a Lifetime
by Ranger-Nova
Summary: The heart will go on... and on, and on, and on... especially when you're stuck in an elevator.


**A/N:** I've had this one on AO3 for awhile, but never posted it here. I have no idea what was going through my mind when I wrote it, but enjoy.

* * *

"Quick! Get to the lift!" The Doctor was racing through the hall, dragging Jo by the hand while the Master followed alongside them. "We have to get out of here before the bomb goes off!"

What had started as a routine trip forward in time, going several decades into Earth's future, had turned perilous after they encountered the Master working with a race of aliens to conquer the world. The Master's alliance had soured by this point, however, and he'd been forced to join the Doctor and Jo in fighting against them, and together they'd broken into the aliens' base—a disguised office building—and planted a bomb. One tense showdown with the invaders later, and the aliens were fleeing to their ships to escape before the bomb detonated, while the trio tried to get out as well.

"We don't have much time!" Jo panted, slamming her fist against the button on the wall. They waited what seemed like an eternity and the doors opened. The Master shoved his way inside first, while the Doctor waited for Jo to get in before he followed, and then they were on their way down.

The Master checked his watch. "I don't think we're going to make it..."

"We have to!" Jo insisted.

"This is all your fault, you know." The Doctor glared at the other Time Lord. "If you hadn't led those aliens here..."

"This is no time to be pointing fingers," said the Master. "We only have five seconds before—"

His words were cut off as the whole lift rocked, creaking and buckling while a thunderous boom echoed outside and lights went out. There was a jolt and the lift came to a stop, and by then the smell of smoke was all too apparent. The occupants gathered themselves up from the floor where they'd been flung during the blast, and the Master dusted himself off and coughed.

"I think my watch may be wrong."

"Well, at least we're alive," said the Doctor, fumbling around. "Could have been much worse. Ah, here are the doors. Now, I wonder if I can get them open..."

"I wouldn't try," the Master warned. "By my calculations, we're between levels right now. Besides, we don't know what the structural integrity of the building is at the moment."

Jo put her hands on her hips. "Well we can't stay here all day."

"Someone'll find us," said the Doctor. "I'm sure rescue crews are already on the way. We just have to be patient."

"Can't you make the lift work with your screwdriver or something?" Jo sighed. "I just stubbed my toe in the dark and I don't want to breathe in this smoke for hours."

"I suppose I can try, but I doubt the lift's still in working order." Reaching into his jacket, the Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and raised it to the ceiling. It chirred and buzzed, but the lift didn't move. "Maybe if I try a different setting..."

There was no movement from the lift, but soft, gentle music started playing.

 _"Every night in my dreams I see you, I feel youuu..."_

"I think you turned on the speakers, Doctor," snorted the Master.

"At least _those_ are working," the Doctor sighed.

"I guess there's nothing for it but to wait." Jo slumped against the wall and sat down, her arms folded. "If only we'd gotten out just a few seconds sooner!"

Sitting down beside her, the Doctor patted her shoulder. "We're alive, and that's the main thing."

They sat in silence for awhile, the only sound the song echoing from the ceiling.

 _"You're here, there's nothing I fear, and I know that my heart will go oooooon..."_

The Master finally spoke up. "Can't you turn it off, Doctor? Our predicament is bad enough without this wailing."

Drawing out his screwdriver again, the Doctor turned it on and aimed it at the speaker. The music continued playing. "Good grief," he muttered, hitting the screwdriver a few times. "Come on, _work_."

 _"Near, far, wherever you ar— Every night in my dreams I see you, I feel you, that is how I know you go ooon..."_

The Master sighed. "It's playing again. You've made it repeat."

"You're the one who told me to turn it off."

"And instead you made it worse."

"Oh, be quiet, both of you," groaned Jo.

* * *

 _"Love can touch us one time, and last for a liiifetime..."_

"I've tried every setting," the Doctor whispered desperately. "Nothing works, nothing. It just keeps playing..."

Jo put her face in her hands. "You said a rescue crew would be here soon."

"Not soon enough," sighed the Master.

* * *

 _"We'll staaay forever this waaay..."_

"It's been two hours, Doctor," Jo mumbled, her hands over her ears.

 _"You are safe in my heart, and my heart will go ooon and ooooooooon..."_

The Doctor was still staring hopelessly at his sonic screwdriver. "Perhaps if I reverse the polarity... no, that wouldn't work... there has to be something..." He turned to the Master. "Do you happen to have your Tissue Compression Eliminator with you?"

The Master glanced up. "No, I left it in my TARDIS. Why? How would it help?"

"It wouldn't. I just thought I might shoot myself."

* * *

 _"Near, far, wherever you aaare..."_

Jo was curled up on the floor by this point, reciting nursery rhymes in the vain hope they might distract her. Unfortunately, they seemed to be far more effective against mind control than the powers of Celine Dion's voice. The Master was sitting in a corner, the frown covering his face and the occasional tightening of his fists suggesting he was occupying himself by contemplating various horrible ways to murder everyone involved in the production of Titanic. Meanwhile, oblivious to everything else, the Doctor was still frantically fiddling with his screwdriver, trying every possible adjustment and setting.

There was still no sign of a rescue party.

 _"I believe that the heart does go on..._ "

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall," Jo repeated furiously.

"Would it _really_ be breaking the laws of time to strangle someone in their infancy if it was for a good cause?" the Master mused out loud to no one in particular.

There was a loud gasp. "I think I've got it! This has to be it!" The Doctor suddenly jumped to his feet, brandishing his sonic screwdriver like a sword. "If this doesn't work, nothing will!"

"Unfortunately I feel the latter option is more likely," the Master sighed.

Jo glanced up hopefully, however, and watched as the Doctor switched the screwdriver on. There was the familiar buzzing as it activated...

 _"Once mooore you open the dooo—"_

And then blessed silence.

For a moment the trio could only stare at each other in disbelief, and then they let out a collective sigh of relief. At last, the nightmare was over.

"You did it," Jo gasped, getting to her feet and clasping the Doctor's hand. "You stopped it!"

"It seems you were right after all," the Master shrugged. "I—"

An unfamiliar beat sounded over the speakers, cutting him off.

 _"And I was like baby, baby, baby, oooh, like baby, baby, baby, noooo..."_

The room turned frigid instantly and the Doctor backed away as he faced the full intensity of the Master's glare, a powerful thing indeed even in the dim light.

"Change. It. Back."

* * *

When they were finally able to pry open the lift's doors, the rescue workers raised their eyebrows in surprise as they were greeted by the sight of one man pressed against the wall being strangled by a shorter man, while a young woman held a strange device to the ceiling and kept pressing buttons and cursing at it.

Amidst all the confusion, a song continued to play.

 _"And I was like baby, baby, baby, oooh, like baby, baby, baby, nooo, like baby, baby, baby, oooh, I thought you'd always be mine..."_


End file.
